2020
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Feb. 13 sentenced Charles McAllister, the CEO of Austin-based Bullion Direct Inc., to 10 years in prison and ordered him to pay $16.1 million dollars in restitution to 5,800 victims of his scheme.
A jury in U.S. District Court in Austin convicted McAllister on Oct. 4, 2019, of two counts of wire fraud and one count of engaging in a monetary transaction with criminally derived property.
In a statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said that evidence presented during the trial showed that McAllister falsely represented to customers that their money would be used to purchase precious metals on their behalf and either shipped directly to the customer or stored in Bullion Direct’s vault.
Instead of buying the precious metals with the customer’s funds and storing customer metals, McAllister spent customer money on Bullion Direct's corporate expenses, on other investment activities, and for his own personal use.
Agents with the FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation and the Texas State Securities Board conducted the investigation.